"Young master!!"
"Doffy!!"
"Damn it!!"
...
Watching their young master get dragged off by that monster of a Marine, Trebol and the others were struck dumb with horror, their scalps tingling as panic surged through them.
Weapons in hand, they charged toward Daren, eyes bloodshot, desperate to save Doflamingo.
None of them spared a second glance at the hundreds of Donquixote family members who had already been gunned down.
Time seemed to slow.
As Daren stared at the boy being pulled toward him, a cold smile curled at the corner of his mouth. A powerful, imposing pressure radiated from his body—deep and overwhelming.
His wide cloak bearing the word "Justice" fluttered despite the still air. As he clenched his fist, the very atmosphere vibrated with a deep hum, like it was being crushed under pressure.
In an instant, the gap between them vanished—they were suddenly face to face.
Daren's fist came crashing down like a meteor.
ROAR!!
The sheer force and velocity of the punch tore through the air, sending a violent gust whipping forward. The impact distorted the space around them, puffing out the cheeks of Doflamingo's youthful face.
Crack...
Hairline fractures formed across his sunglasses from the force alone.
What terrifying strength!
This Marine... was a complete monster in human form!
How could someone this powerful even be stationed in the North Blue?
Shouldn't he be deployed to the Grand Line—or even the New World?
Doflamingo's vision blurred.
That punch—it was so fast, so overwhelming—it twisted his senses, leaving him with a warped illusion.
The black leather glove loomed closer, growing in size, like a landslide about to bury him.
A chill shot up from the soles of his feet, racing along his spine.
For the first time, Doflamingo felt the icy grip of death seize his brain.
"You bastard!!"
He shuddered violently, clenched his teeth, and roared in fury.
If he took that punch head-on... he'd die. No doubt about it.
Feeling the crushing pressure bearing down on him, one thought pierced through his mind—
Block it.
I have to block it!
Without hesitation, he snapped the threads connected to his fingers. Veins bulged across his arms as his claw-like hands slashed through the air.
Shhhk!
Hundreds, thousands of white threads exploded outward, instantly weaving into a dense, massive spiderweb. Like a wall of snow, it stretched between him and Daren.
The web's ends anchored deep into the ground and the surrounding buildings, forming a near-impenetrable barrier.
"Kumo no Sugaki!!" (Spider Web)
And then—
The punch landed.
Faced with Doflamingo's Devil Fruit-crafted web of defense, Daren didn't pause.
He didn't flinch.
He just kept smiling coldly.
His black hair whipped wildly in the wind, and behind it—eyes filled with cold confidence, ready to crush everything in their path.
The earth-shattering punch ripped through the air, its fierce momentum forming a spiraling white shockwave that crashed into the spiderweb wall.
The moment fist met thread—
The silk wall, tough as reinforced steel, warped and stretched under the pressure. But the force didn't slow—it only redirected.
Still brimming with energy, the distorted wall hurled itself straight back at Doflamingo like a slingshot rebounding with lethal intent.
His mind reeled.
Beneath his cracked sunglasses, Doflamingo's eyes filled with bloodshot fury.
"Damn bastard!!!"
"How can I lose here!!!"
Boom!
A tremendous, overwhelming force erupted from his body like a raging storm, surging outward in all directions.
The sky and earth instantly changed color.
The world before their eyes seemed to shift into black and white, and a soul-shaking pressure swept across most of the town like crashing waves.
Trebol and the other three, who had been charging toward Daren, suddenly froze as if struck by an invisible force, their steps halting uncontrollably.
They stared at Doflamingo in shock, hearts pounding wildly.
"It's the young master's aura!!"
"The king's spirit!!"
"As expected of Doffyl!!"
...
Wave after wave of pressure surged toward them, shaking their spirits to the core—they could barely stay standing.
Conqueror's Haki!
The kingly will possessed by only one in millions!
It was precisely because they had witnessed Doflamingo's Conqueror's Haki back then that they had wholeheartedly acknowledged this twelve or thirteen-year-old kid as their "king" and knelt before him.
Now, in a life-or-death moment, Doflamingo had instinctively unleashed his Conqueror's Haki once more!
But before they could react—
Another aura burst forth, even deeper, more overwhelming, majestic, and tyrannical.
Boom!
Trebol and the others widened their eyes in horror, unable to believe what they were sensing.
Conqueror's Haki!
Identical to the young master's!
No—this one was even more terrifying.
It felt like facing a blood-soaked emperor or a wrathful demon from hell. It made their hearts tremble with fear and submission.
The one releasing this aura...
"No way!!"
Diamante shrieked in disbelief, his paint-covered face going deathly pale.
The Marines!
That Marine!!
A Marine Captain from the North Blue... actually possesses the king's spirit!?
Boom!!
As their panicked cries rang out, the two waves of Conqueror's Haki clashed violently in midair.
Like two massive storms, the energies surged from Daren and Doflamingo, colliding head-on above.
They compressed, expanded, then compressed again...
Crackle—crack!
Black and red lightning exploded in a dense web through the air, flickering and vanishing in bursts.
The storm howled, sweeping bricks, dirt, and debris high into the sky, stirring the heavens.
"A clash of Conqueror's Haki..." Trebol muttered, pale-faced.
Before they realized it, their strength had drained completely. Dizzy and overwhelmed, they dropped to one knee, barely managing to lift their arms to shield themselves from the roaring wind.
"You actually have the same kingly aptitude as me!?"
Doflamingo's face twisted as he roared in disbelief, unable to accept what he was seeing.
Daren sneered.
"Conqueror's Haki may be rare, but in the chaos of the New World, Haki users like that are as common as fish in a river."
As he spoke, the muscles in the Marine Captain's arms swelled violently, tearing straight through his uniform.
With a second surge of power, his sleeves exploded into countless fragments as his fist came crashing down again—relentlessly pressing toward Doflamingo!
And his Conqueror's Haki... was actually overpowering Doflamingo's!
"Damn it!! How can your Conqueror's Haki suppress mine!?"
Doflamingo's pupils trembled as he let out a frenzied roar. The skin on his hands, which controlled his threads, split open, spraying blood into the air.
"I am... Donquixote Doflamingo!!"
The threads created by the Ito Ito no Mi were incredibly tough—too strong for even a swordsman to cut. No matter how powerful this Marine was, there was no way he could break through!
It could hold!
It had to hold!!
"I am... a noble Celestial Dr—"
"—I beat Celestial Dragons for a living!!"
Daren's cold shout cut him off without hesitation.
He stomped hard on the ground, shattering the terrain within thirty meters. Cracks spread out like a spiderweb before the earth erupted, sending waves of mud flying.
As the ground trembled, he launched forward with explosive force!
A monstrous power, rivaling even the Giants, surged from his feet, coursing up his spine...
The Marine Captain's body was like a tightly drawn bow, and all that force was unleashed through his fists.
Crack!
Rip!
In the stunned, horrified eyes of Trebol and the others...
In Doflamingo's frozen expression...
The wall of white threads looked like it had been struck by a meteor. Its center caved in, and the dense threads connecting everything—
Massive chunks of land,
The walls of buildings,
Even entire houses—were ripped out of the ground like weeds!
The sheer force of Daren's punch had uprooted entire buildings and chunks of land—over a dozen structures torn from the earth!
The sight was so absurd it sent a chill down Doflamingo's spine. A nameless terror surged through him, clenching his throat.
He hadn't broken through the threads...
He'd torn up everything the threads were attached to!
Bang!
Before Doflamingo could even react, Daren's punch drove straight into his gut.
Even weighed down by the rubble and buildings entangled in the threads, the punch's overwhelming power still burst out from Doflamingo's back in a white shockwave.
His eyes rolled back, bloodshot and bulging, his mind going blank.
His body arched mid-air.
"Urgh!"
A mouthful of blood sprayed from his lips.
The next instant—
Doflamingo's body was sent flying like a cannonball.
He smashed into Trebol, who was still kneeling.
He crashed through towering lampposts lining the street.
He tore through house after house, obliterating everything in his path...
...until, after flying several dozen meters, his body slammed into a building.
The earth shook with the impact.
The multi-story structure groaned under the strain...
And collapsed with a thunderous crash!
...
Meanwhile, on the far side of Rubeck Island...
Along the coastline, a warship was docked.
Nearly a hundred Marines from the North Blue stood at full alert, waiting grimly for orders.
In the distance, groups of civilians were being hurriedly evacuated from the town by squads of Marines.
"Reporting to Lieutenant Commander Momonga—civilian evacuation is nearly complete."
"The security perimeter is in place."
A Marine saluted and reported to Momonga, who stood atop a building roof.
Still peering through his binoculars, Momonga didn't turn around. He simply waved a hand to acknowledge.
His eyes remained fixed on the distant town.
At that moment, a low rumble echoed from afar.
Through the lens, Momonga saw thick smoke rise like a roaring dragon.
He slowly lowered the binoculars, pressing a hand to his forehead in frustration and pain.
"This is getting out of hand."
His mouth twitched involuntarily.
"It's like a father beating his own kid..."
(40 Chapters Ahead)
p@treon com / PinkSnake